If you click the PDF file below, you'll see the original Hebrew version of an open letter written by one of our leading Rabbis and kabbalists, Rav Yehuda Sheinfeld, a leading member of the Badatz Rabbinical council in Israel, warning his colleagues about the ongoing malicious and libellous activities of the lone 'witness' against Rav Berland.

(I don't have this in a format that automatically displays onscreen, sorry.)

The basic gist of what he wrote is this (my free translation):

OPEN LETTER FROM RAV YEHUDA SHEINFELD

"To all the honored Rabbonim of the Badatz, and all other Rabbonim involved with judging matters in Beit Din.

It's come to my attention that certain people want to try to include the Badatz in a letter of 'cherem' against the Gaon and Tzaddik, Rav Eliezer Berland, shlita, and his community.

I'm here to tell you that I know all the background [about this matter] from the inside-out, and how the person responsible has devised a number of cowardly, negative rumors and intrigues.

I'm writing to warn you to not believe any libels or false claims, without first verifying the other side's account, in accordance with halacha, and particularly when we're dealing with an individual like this...who is delusional [or this word could be translated as 'fallacious / deceptive'], and is deluding / decieving other people along with him.

So, my fellow rabbis, you should proceed extremely carefully.

I have examined all the details of this case minutely, and spoken to both sides involved, and you can clarify any matters pertaining to it directly with me."

If this matter is clarifying anything, it's showing up the enormous amount of lashon hara, slander and mentally-ill, abusive behaviour that's passing for 'normal' even in the religious world.

God wants us to deal with this horrible behavior and attitude, and to stamp it out, which is one of the reasons all this controversy is happening right now. I'll have more to say on this in due course, but it's directly connected to the war of Gog and Magog and the erev rav.

Yesterday, I had an email exchange with a very learned, nice and idealistic Jewish leader, who was still adamantly sticking to his guns that the JPost / INN / Channel 2 / [fill in any other untruthful media outlet] should be believed above our holy Rabbis.

At the end of our exchange, I had to admit I got a little down about what's going on, because if people like him are so caught up in all the media lies, and so far away from emunat tzaddikim, then what hope is there?

But today, I realised that the bigger the lies get - and we're being told lies about SO many things by our media and government at the moment, wherever we happen to live in the world - the more people are going to figure out that something is not quite right with the whole picture.

If an individual can forge a letter from three leading rabbis, plus forge a statement from Rav Berland's own son, and innumerable media outlets print it all verbatim (check for yourself - the exact same wording appeared across the media outlets, regardless of which journalist claimed to have 'written it'), and without even making a single phone call between them to verify the facts of the matter, what does that say about how much of the stuff you're reading about Rav Berland - or about any other issue - is really true?

It's actually scary.

UPDATE: I've recieved a clarification that the person being referred to by Rav Sheinfeld in this letter is not the lone witness, but yet another disturbed individual who's been actively slandering Rav Berland. Unfortunately, there appears to be a lot of them out there. I will come back to this topic in a future post, BH.

​I'm also attaching another letter from Rav Sheinfeld, (click the document to view it, it's in Hebrew) where he specifically decries the terrible lashon hara that is being spoken against our true Tzaddikim.